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THE ADMINISTRATION 



AND 




®Itp O^rrnfedfrHtc States. 



The following letter pi one of a correspondence 
between Hon. John A. Campbell, late Judge of the 
United States Supreme Court, and Hon. Wm. H. 
Seward, all of which was laid before the- Provisional 
Congress on Saturday by President Davis. 



Washington City, April 13, 1861. 

Sir:— On the 15th March, ult., I left with Jud 
Crawford, one of the Commissioners of the Conf 
erate States, a note in writing to the effect follow? 

"I feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter wi' 
evacuated in the next five days. And this me 
is felt as imposing great responsibility on the ^ 
istration. 

"I feel entire confidence that no measure c 
the existing status, prejudiciously to the\ ' 
Confederate States, is at present- contemplate 



! 



2 .Cl? 

X feel an entire confidence that an immediate de- 

id for an answer to the communication of the 

nmissioners will be productive of evil and not of 

good. I do not believe that it ought at this time to 

be pressed." 

The substance of this statement I communicated 
to you the same evening by letter. Five days elapsed, 
and I called with a telegram from Gen. Beauregard, 
to the effect that Sumter was not evacuated, but that 
Major Anderson was at work making repairs. 

The next day, after conversing with you, I commu- 
nicated to Judge Crawford in writing that the failure 
to evacuate Fort Sumter was not the result of bad 
faith, but was attributable to causes consistent with 
the intention to fulfil the engagement, and that as 
regarded Pickens, I should have notice of any design 
to alter the existing status there. Mr. Justice Nelson 
was present at these conversations, three in number, 
and I submitted to him each of my written commu- 
nications to Judge Crawford, and informed Judge C. 
that they had his (Judge Nelson's) sanction. I gave 
vou, on the 22d of March, a substantial copy of the 
atement I had made on the 15th. 
The 30th of March arrived, and at that time a tel- 
am came from Gov. Pickens inquiring concerning 
Lamon, whose visit to Charleston he supposed 
a connection with the proposed evacuation of 
Sumter, 
ft that with you, and was to have an answer 
'owing Monday — 1st April. On the 1st of 
received from you the statement in writing, 
tisfied) the Government will not undertake 
ly Fort Sumter without giving notice to 



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Governor P." The words "I am satisfied," were for 
me to use as expressive of confidence in the remain- 
der of the declaration. 

The proposition as originally prepared, was : "The 
President may desire to supply Rumter, but will not 
do so," &c., and your verbal explanation was, that 
you did not believe any such attempt would be made, 
and that there was no design to reinforce Sumter. 

There was a departure here from the pledges of 
the previous month, but with the verbal explanation 
I did not consider it a matter then to complain of. 
I simply stated to you that I had that assurance pre- 
viously. 

On the 7th of April, I addressed you a letter on 
the subject of the alarm that the preparations by the 
Government had created, and asked you if the assu- 
rances I had given were well or ill-founded. In re- 
spect to Sumter, your reply was "Faith as to Sumter 
fully kept — wait and see." In the morning's paper 
I read : "An authorized messenger from President 
Lincoln informed Gov. Pickens and General Beaure- 
gard that provisions would be sent to Fort Sumter 
peaceably, or otherwise, hy forcey This was the 8th 
of April, at Charleston, the day following your last 
assurance, and is the evidence of the full faith I was 
invited to wait for and see. In the same paper I read 
that intercepted dispatches disclosed the fact that 
Mr. Fox, who had been allowed to visit Major Ander- 
son, on the pledge that his purpose was pacific, em- 
ployed his opportunity to devise a plan for supplying 
the Fort by force, and that this plan had been adopt- 
ed by the Washington Government, and was in pro- 
cess of execution. My recollection of the date of 



4 

Xlr. Fox's visit carries it to a jday in March. I learn 
he is a near connection of a member of the Cabinet. 
My connection with the Commissioners and yourself 
was superinduced by a conversation with Justice 
Nelson. He informed me of your strong dispositions 
in favor of peace, and that you were oppressed with 
a demand of the Commissioners of the Confederate 
States for a reply to their first letter, and that you 
desired to avoid it, if possible, at that time. I told 
him I might, perhaps, be of some service in arranging 
the difficulty. I came to your office entirely at his 
request, and without the knowledge of either of the 
Commissioners. Your depression was obvious to 
both Judge Nelson and myself. I was gratified at 
the character of the counsels you were desirous of 
pursuing, and much impressed with your observation 
that a civil war might be prevented by the success 
of my mediation. You read a letter of Mr. Weed, to 
show how irksome and responsible the withdrawal of 
troops from Sumter was. A portion of my commu- 
nication to Judge Crawford on the 15th of March 
was founded upon these remarks, and the pledge to 
evacuate Fort Sumter is less forcible than the words 
you employed. I'hose words were : "Before this let- 
ter reaches you (a proposed letter by me to President 
Davis,) Sumter will have been evacuated." 

The Commissioners who received those communi- 
cations conclude they have been abused and over- 
reached. The Montgomery Government hold the 
same opinion. The Commissioners have supposed 
that my communications were with you, and upon 
the hypothesis prepared to arraign you before the 
country in connection with the President. I placed 



a peremptory prohibition upon this as being contrary 
to the terms of my communication with them. I 
pledged myself to them to communicate information 
upon what I considered as the best authority, and 
they were to confide in the ability of myself, aided 
by Judge Nelson, to determine upon the credibility 
of my informant. 

I think no candid man who will read over what I 
have written, and consider for a moment what is 
going on at Sumter, but will agree that the equiv- 
ocating conduct of the Administration, as measured 
and interpreted in connection with these promises, 
is the proximate cause of the great calamity. 

I have a profound conviction that the telegrams of 
the 8th of April, of Gen. Beauregard, and of the 10th 
of April, of Gen. Walker, the Secretary of War, can 
be referred to nothing else than their belief that there 
has been systematic duplicity practiced on them 
through me. It is under an oppressive sense of the 
weight of the responsibility that 1 submit to you 
these things for your explanation. 

Yery respectfully, 

(Signed,) JOHN A. CAMPBELL, 

Associate Justice of the Supreme G. U. S. 
Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Sec'y of State. 



Washington City, Afrril 20, 1861. 

Sir : — I enclose you a letter, corresponding very 
nearly with one I addressed to you a week ago — 13th 
April — to which I have not had any reply. The let- 



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ter is simply one of inquiry in reference to facts con- 
cerning which, I think, I am entitled to an explana- 
tion. I have not adopted any opinion in reference 
to them which may not be modified by explanation, 
nor have I affirmed in that letter, nor do I in this, 
any conclusion of my own unfavorable to your in- 
tegrity in the whole transaction. 

All that I have said, and mean to say, is that an 
explanation is due from you to myself. I will not 
say what I shall do in case this request is not com- 
plied with, but I am justified in saying, that I shall 
feel at liberty to place these letters before any per- 
son who is entitled to ask an explanation of myself. 
Very respectfully, 

JOHN A. CAMPBELL, 
Associate Justice Supreme Court of U. S. 

Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. 
No reply has been made to this letter. 
April U, 1861. 

\ 

Montgomery, Ala., May 7, 1861. 

Sir : — I submit to you two letters that were ad- 
dressed by me to the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secre- 
tory of State of the United States, that contain an 
explanation of the nature and result of an interven- 
tion by me in the intercourse of the Commissioners 
of the Confederate States with that officer. I consid- 
ered that I could perform no duty in which the entire 
American people, whether of the Federal Union or 
of the Confederate States, were more interested than 
that of promoting the counsels and the policy that 



had for their object the preservation of peace. This 
motive dictated my intervention. Besides the inter- 
view referred to in these letters I informed the As- 
sistant Secretary of State of the United States (not 
being able to see the Secretary) on the 11th of April, 
ult., of the existence of a dispatch of that date from 
Gen^ral Beauregard to the Commissioners, in which 
he informed the Commissioners that he had demand- 
ed the evacuation of Sumter, and if refused, he would 
proceed to reduce it. 

On the same day I had been told that President 
Lincoln had said that none of the vessels sent to 
Charleston were war vessels, and that force was not 
to be used in the attempt to supply the fort. I had 
no means of testing the accuracy of this information ; 
but offered that if the information was accurate I 
I would send a dispatch to the authorities at Charles- 
ton, and it might prevent the disastrous consequen- 
ces of a collision at that fort between the opposing 
forces. It was the last effort I would make to avert 
the calamities of war. The Assistant Secretai 
promised to give the matter attention, but I had no 
other interview with him or any other person on the 
subject, nor have I had any reply to the letters sub- 
mitted to you. 

Very respectfully, 

JOHN A. CAMPBELL, 

Gen. Davis, President of the Confederate States. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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